The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
Conventionally, a printer equipped with a manual paper feeding port, separate from a paper feeding cassette which is built in an apparatus main body has been proposed. In this printer, the manual paper feeding port is disposed at the front (front surface) of the printer, under an operating panel on which various operating switches are disposed.
By use of the above-described manual paper feeding port, for example, where a user desires to record on a recording medium (for example, envelopes) different from a recording medium placed in a paper feeding cassette (for example, general print), a user feeds the desired recording media through the manual paper feeding port to the printer, to make the printer execute recording (image formation) on the desired recording medium (envelopes, for example).
In this case, a manual paper feeding port is disposed at the front side of a printer and a recording medium must be kept substantially horizontal when inserted into the manual paper feeding port. However, when a flexible medium is to be recorded on (for example, relatively thin paper or soft film), even if a user holds one edge side of the recording medium by hand to attempt to insert the other side edge thereof into the manual paper feeding port, the other edge side of the recording medium droops down due to the weight of the recording medium, and the recording medium cannot be held substantially horizontal.
Therefore, a user cannot properly insert the other end of the recording medium into the manual paper feeding port, wasting time and causing trouble when inserting the recording medium. Further, even if the user has inserted the other edge side of the recording medium into the manual paper feeding port, the recording medium may fall from the manual paper feeding port when the user releases the edge side in the user's hand.
Further, where a printer is disposed at a lower position relative to the user, a user has to look down at the printer from an angle at a higher position relative to the printer. However, it is difficult to insert the recording medium into the manual paper feeding port in a substantially horizontal direction only by stretching his/her hand from the higher position. Thus, the user must position him or her self low to insert the recording medium.